This study by Bush et al. has shown that rare birds are not the most traded birds. My master thesis was on the international bird trade and I found that, although there may not be much trading in rare birds, the scarcity of a bird species does drive the price up. Additionally, poachers may have up to two years warning before a species is up-listed to a level of higher protection by CITES, causing poachers to fill their boots before trade in a particular species becomes illegal.

Unfortunately, the same study found that the demand for reptiles and mammals was related to their rarity.

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The removal of over 13,000 birds from the wild may be disconcerting given that some populations of rare species are down to a few hundred individuals. Yet, despite the high volume of bird sales, the traded species were one and a half times less likely to be red listed than off-market species.